


YuiAzu - Things You Said After It Was Over

by Spywi



Series: YuiAzu - "Things You Said" [1]
Category: K-On!
Genre: F/F, K-ON! - Freeform, k on, k on!, k on!!, k-on, k-on!!, keion, keionbu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 15,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5798314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spywi/pseuds/Spywi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series made from answering all the prompts on a fic ask meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Things You Said After It Was Over

The rain quietly drizzled outside the girl's apartment window. A pair of dark brown eyes peered out into the dark night, contemplating the events that transpired recently. Letting out a small sigh, she turned around and peered behind her. The room behind her was bare, except for a few boxes and bags, a set of black cat ears on the ground, and an electric guitar that sat on a stand in the corner. Even in the darkness, one could make out a brightly colored sticker stuck to the front, with the name "Muttan" written on it in curly handwriting. She sighed once more at the sight of the sticker, and turned again to face the window. She thought about what had happened, and had resolved not to cry over it, but she couldn't stop herself from letting a single tear roll down her face. She buried her face in her arms, and let out a small whimper that was drowned out by the rain.

" . . . Senpai . . ."

.

.

.

The week before, she was a happy girl. She and her girlfriend, Yui, were living together after graduating from college. While the rest of the band had moved to different apartments – Ritsu and Mio sharing a condo and Mugi wanting to live alone for the first time – Yui and Azusa had decided that they wanted to share an apartment together. They had plenty of decorating ideas in mind – most of them Azusa's, as Yui's color choices were a bit too much for her. The furniture had yet to be ordered because they couldn't decide on a new bed. While most of their kitchen utensils were generously provided by Ui, it was tough getting Yui to polish her cooking skills, so Azusa started to look up cooking videos online in order to learn.

It started with small arguments here and there, mostly over small things. They didn't last long, and they quickly faded from memory. The bigger fights eventually started over small things too, but quickly escalated into frustrated shouting. The others were worried that the girls' relationship had taken a beating, but tried their best to act as if nothing had changed. Yui never was physical with Azusa, but one bad fight led to Azusa lashing out and then letting loose a slap across Yui's face. Shocked, Azusa's hands dropped to her side as Yui lowered her head. The silence was almost deafening to the point of the slap's echo still ringing in Azusa's ears. The next morning, Yui had packed what she had brought and moved out of the apartment.

The now-empty rooms echoed with ghosts of Yui and Azusa's laughter, the screams as Yui accidentally dropped food in the kitchen. Azusa couldn't even bear to be in the master bedroom for too long without thinking about the nights she spent together with Yui, and has since moved onto the couch. She didn't even know where Yui had moved to, as she stopped contact with the rest of the band. Jun and Ui come by every now and then to visit, but things just weren't the same.

Another sigh escaped Azusa's lips as she leaned back on the windowsill where she was sitting. She pressed her forehead to the cold glass and watched as the steam from her breath collected, shrouding her reflection. She closed her eyes, and through tears, said out loud:

"Sorry. . . ."


	2. Things You Said When I Was Crying

Azusa showed up at Ritsu and Mio's door unexpectedly. Mio was out working, so Ritsu was spending the rainy day indoors, watching television. She had been dozing off when a sudden knocking jolted her from her daze. She opened the door and had to take a double-take, for the first thing she saw through the rain was a dripping wet cat. A closer look revealed the figure to be a dripping wet Azusa. The poor girl had run all the way across the neighborhood to reach their apartment, and hadn't brought an umbrella.

After Ritsu clumsily dried Azusa off and handed her a set of Mio's old clothes, she directed her to the shower and went over to her cell. She left Mio a quick voicemail explaining the situation, and then added that Mio should come home as soon as possible to help out. After she was done showering, Ritsu could see that Azusa had extremely red eyes and bags under them, indicating that she had been crying recently. Must have been something to do with Yui, seeing as that fight only happened like a week ago.

After handing her a cup of strong tea, Ritsu plopped down on a chair in front of Azusa and asked:

"How's everything holding up, kiddo?"

". . . Could be better, I suppose," mumbled Azusa, before taking a sip. The warmth of the mug calmed her down just like a cat near a fireplace, and she managed to loosen up a bit.

"Yeah, I see whatcha mean. Tough week, for all of us."

"I mean, I just don't know what went wrong. I wasn't even sure when we started fighting that night. We just argued and argued and then . . ."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, don't let it all out at once," said Ritsu hurriedly. She didn't want any bad memories surfacing again so soon.

"S-Sorry, guess I still haven't let everything sink in yet, I suppose."

Azusa lowered her head, quietly sipping her tea. It was at that point that Mio came in through the door, pulled off her raincoat, and started hugging Azusa.

"I came as soon as I heard Ritsu's message; thank goodness I work so close to home. Azusa, I hope you didn't do anything stupid like run all the way here in the rain, you live too far away to – "

"I-It's okay, Mio, I just -" started Azusa before sneezing all over Mio's coat.

"See, what did I tell you? Good thing we got you into the shower when we did, otherwise I don't know what I would have done . . ."

"Miooo, stop being such a worrywart. She's fine, I took care of everything," interrupted Ritsu from the other side of the table. Mio eyed the half-finished cup of tea, the towel and Azusa in her old set of clothes, and nodded.

"Yes, thank you, Ritsu. You made sure she was okay, and I'm glad that she isn't sick or anything," said Mio.

"Hehe," chuckled Ritsu, hand scratching the back of her head.

Azusa smiled at the two of them interacting, and thought back to the good old days when they would lightheartedly argue in their light music club meetings. Of how Mugi would bring them sweets, and how Sawa-chan would harass them and dress them up, of playing with and feeding Ton-chan, and of playing guitar with . . .

"A-Azusa?" said Mio.

Tears had started to fall once more from Azusa's eyes. She couldn't help it, she was once more thinking of happier times with the one she loved.

"I-I'm sorry. I just d-don't want things to end this way," sobbed Azusa through tears. "I don't want Yui to disappear from my life. I don't want her to go about life hating me for what I did . . . I don't want to lose her . . . I, I-I . . ."

". . . love you," came a voice from the hallway. From out of the shadowy hall came a figure wearing a set of pajamas. A familiar face, one that she had enjoyed waking up to and seeing every day, one that she had known to love, though all the silliness and all the laughter.

"Y-Yui?! Why are you here?" yelled Azusa, flustered.

"Oh, I forgot," said Ritsu. "Yui was staying with us for the time being. She was in the guest room just now."

"Y-You could have told me that earlier!"

"You never asked-OUCH"

"Knock it off, Ritsu," said Mio, her fist leaving a bump on Ritsu's head.

Yui stepped in front of the crying Azusa, and leaned over until they were at eye level.

"I don't hate you, Azu-nyan. If anything, I want to start over and make things how they used to be. Just like when we were in high school, right?"

That smile. That grin that she had used to know. After so many months of arguing and fights, of silent nights in bed and of avoiding each other's gaze, of slowly forgetting what it had looked like. She finally smiled for Azusa.

"Geez, Yui, don't do that to me, don't say that while I'm crying," mumbled Azusa, wiping away tears.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna do my best to fix what we started. But this time, let's do this together, okay?"

Azusa looked up into the big eyes of her former senpai, and saw no hate in them. With a rush of emotions, Azusa jumped up and wrapped herself around Yui in a huge hug. Her crying resumed, even louder than ever, and even Yui joined her in the waterworks.

Ritsu and Mio looked on as the two reunited lovers held each other in their arms, crying so loud that it drowned out the storm outside. At this point, the door burst open, and a soaking wet Mugi came in bearing gifts.

"I have tea and cook- " she paused, looking at the scene that was unfolding before her.

" . . . –ies . . . wait, what did I miss?"

They couldn't help it; the rest of them started laughing harder than they had in the longest time. Mugi only looked on in confusion: Mio and Ritsu supporting each other up because they were laughing so hard, and Azusa and Yui laughing on the floor through tears and snot.

"What did I miss while I was gone?!" Mugi yelled.


	3. Things You Said When You Thought I Was Asleep

The once-empty apartment now glowed with color. The walls alternated in vertical stripes, one set a vibrant red-orange to match Yui's guitar, and the other decorated with a pattern of black cats. The two girls shared a large bed, with both of their electric guitars guarding either side. There were plushies strewn about, as well as various clothes and music sheets. The occasional candy wrapper poked through the mess. A laptop lay open on top of a small pile of clothes, the screen slightly flickering as it played a looping playlist of relaxing piano instrumentals.

The heavy rains had faded into a calming snowfall. As the glistening flakes slowly fell on the quiet town, two girls quietly snored the night away, both undressed and intertwined as if they were tied together. As the laptop continued playing a soothing song, a screen popped open in the corner, and the device made a loud pinging noise. The brown haired girl awoke with a jolt, thinking it was her alarm. As she sat up and peered over the edge of the bed, she could just barely make out Ritsu's face on a box in the corner of the laptop screen, along with the word "Online". She had forgotten to log out of Skype, and since she had the volume up for the piano playlist, the notification was louder than it should have been.

_Remind me to log out of that before I sleep_ , she thought to no one in particular. Yui untangled herself from the sleeping kitten that was Azusa, and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Azusa moaned a little, and then turned her body to face the other side of the room, and began snoring lightly. Yui smiled, and reached over and brushed some of Azusa's hair away from her ear. She got up from the bed and made her way over to the door, pausing only to shut the laptop.

A few minutes later, she returned from the bathroom, and sat down on the bed once more. Azusa's breathing was even and slow, as evident from her exposed breasts. Yui giggled a little, still a little in awe that the two of them have been dating for this long, to the point of them being able to be in bed together without clothes on. To think that they were able to make it this far, after all the fighting and drama that happened a few months back. To her, it was simply amazing that things were able to be fixed.

Yui leaned back and simply stared at Azusa's naked form in the darkness. For a long while, she said nothing, and then started to speak out loud.

"Thank you for being mine. Thank you for always putting up with me, for letting me put up with you. Thank you for making me smile every single day, and for being there when I need you most. Thank you for loving me, even when I was at my most difficult to love."

She paused here, thinking back to the time when she moved out of the apartment. She had asked Mio and Ritsu if she could live with them for the time being, until she could patch things up with Azusa. She didn't want things to end right then and there, and she couldn't bear to lose Azusa, so she figured that time away from each other would be the best course of action. No calls, no texts, no visits. Not even an email. Yui had decided at that moment that she wouldn't contact Azusa for a while, so that everything could cool down, and they could fix things when things were less likely to cause a fight.

Yui stared once more into Azusa's motionless face.

"I'm sorry, Azu-nyan. I'm sorry that I was impulsive. I shouldn't have walked out like that. I should have at least contacted you and told you where I was. That was a big surprise when you showed up at Mio-chan's when you did. I'm glad that things were able to be fixed . . ."

At this point, she couldn't hold back a few tears, and said quietly,

"Thank you, for being mine. Thank you for accepting my apology, thank you for taking me back, thank you for understanding, thank you for being mine . . ."

Suddenly, she felt a weight around her neck, and she felt Azusa's entire body roll until it was on top of hers.

"A-A-Azu-n-n-nyan! You were asleep! You weren't supposed to hear that!"

Azusa looked down at her girlfriend, her long hair encompassing Yui's face, and smiled through the darkness.

"You know I can't sleep without music playing, Yui. You shouldn't have turned off the laptop if you wanted me to keep sleeping."

"Crud, and here I thought I could vent a little to you while you slept," said Yui sheepishly. They both giggled, and Azusa tilted her head to the side.

"I love you, Yui. You don't have to apologize. If anything, I'm at fault too. We both have flaws, we both aren't perfect, but you know what?"

"What?"

"You're perfect to me. And I'm perfect to you. So why don't we continue making things work, with you loving me, and me loving you. After all, you're the best thing that happened in my life."

"Aw, come here you."

Azusa lowered her head, her long dark hair billowing around Yui's head. The two came together for a long, slow kiss, and then they hugged each other close once more. Their bodies couldn't be any closer, and as their chests rubbed against each other in their embrace, they could feel each other breathing, feel every heartbeat between them.

And so they fell asleep once more.


	4. Things You Said At The Kitchen Table

The next morning. Azusa was the first one to wake up, as always. She kissed Yui's lips as she slept, and got up to start the day. She wandered around the room for a little to find a bra and panties, and didn't find any that belonged to her, so she had to pick through Yui's clean pile to find a pair to borrow. As she tried them on, Yui's bra didn't quite fit just right, and even on the tightest hook, they slid down to her waist. If only she were a little bit bigger, maybe she could please Yui a little more . . .

No, that's not right. Yui loves her just the way she is, so growing bigger was out of the question.

_Still,_ she thought as she stared down at herself. She could fit her breasts in the palms of her hands. _I could stand to drink more milk, I suppose._

Seeing how ridiculous she looked in the mirror, she giggled and decided to just wear the underwear. She sidestepped Giitah and headed to the kitchen.

The kitchen was the cleanest part of the apartment; Azusa definitely made sure of that. Completely clean dishes in the dishwasher, completely stocked fridge, and an entire set of new utensils, courtesy of Mugi. Azusa put on an apron, and started making breakfast. She wanted to try out a new recipe that she saw from an American cooking show she started watching the other day: Eggs Benedict – An English muffin with bacon, and topped with a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. Thanks to Mio and Ritsu giving them the ingredients in the fridge, and Ui providing the cooking pans and other kitchen supplies, it was only natural that Azusa wanted to start experimenting with new foods.

The warm kitchen atmosphere was enhanced by the smell of cooking eggs and bacon, as well as the slight hint of citrus in the air, as Azusa was also squeezing fresh orange juice into a pitcher. Given her size, it took her a little while to fill up the entire pitcher by herself. She heard the shower running, meaning that Yui had woken up and was also getting ready. She was putting the final touches on her dish when Yui appeared from the bathroom, head and torso wrapped in a towel.

"Something smells good, Azu-nyan. New recipe?"

Azusa looked up from the counter.

"Yup, just finished, hope you like it!" she said with a smile.

Yui went into the kitchen and scanned Azusa's body. No clothing other than Yui's own panties and an apron that covered her front down to her knees, leaving her entire backside exposed to the morning sun.

Yui wrapped her arms around her by-now embarrassed girlfriend and started rubbing her cheek against hers.

"Azu-nyan's being soooo cute today! I love you!"

"Yui, cut it out, I'm not that cute, okay?"

"Oh ho! Does that mean that you're something other than cute?" asked Yui deviously, fingers wiggling.

"Uh oh, I know that look, Yui, don't you dare"

Yui started tickling Azusa all over, sneaking in a few cheeky gropes here and there. Azusa didn't know whether to laugh or moan with pleasure, and what came out was a mixture of both.

"D-Don't . . . ah, don- ahahahaha, mmm . . .Yu-Yui . . . oh . . .hahaha, stop it!"

"Well, it's your fault for being so darn sexy, Azu-nyan."

Azusa almost fell over at that statement. _I'm definitely never changing my size. Should have known Yui loves me even if my boobs are small or if I'm skinny._

Yui finally stopped when she caught sight of the food.

"Yum, that looks amazing Azu-nyan! Did you make that yourself?"

"Y-Yup, I decided to try another new dish, to see if we'd like it," gasped Azusa, still trying to catch her breath.

"Yay! Let's dig in!"

The two sat at the kitchen table, and both cut into the dish at the same time. The egg and the sauce flowed when cut into, and the muffin soaked up most of the liquid, becoming moist and full of flavor. Everything was perfectly cooked, and Yui and Azusa both managed to finish all that Azusa made.

"Azu-nyan, you're an amazing cook. You'd definitely make a great wife someday!" said Yui, face full of egg.

At that point, Azusa couldn't handle the surprise lines from Yui, and started choking on the bit of muffin she was chewing on. One quick pat on the back and a few sips of orange juice later, Azusa was gasping for breath once more.

" _Geez Yui, are you trying to love me or kill me?"_ she asked between gasps.

Yui looked up and thought about it for a bit before replying,

" _I'm in love with you, so why would I want to kill you? If I killed you, I'd be sad, and I don't want to be sad and for you to be gone. I want us to be happy together_."

Azusa stared at Yui in amazement. Such simple reasoning, but it really resonated with her heart. With new determination in her heart, she stood up from the table and raised her fork to the ceiling.

"O-Kay! Time to start cleaning! We're gonna get a lot done today!"

"Ehhh?"

"Your words make me want to do all that I can for you, and that includes making our house spotless."

"I don't follow, Azu-nyan. Explain it so I can understand."

Azusa didn't respond, choosing to playfully kiss Yui on the lips and then raced to the other side of the room, flinging the apron to the side and showing off her body to her former senpai.

"Clean with me, and you get to play with me later," she said with a wink, before disappearing into the room to change.

"W-W-Wait for meee!" cried out Yui.


	5. Things You Said At 1AM

This time, it was Azusa who couldn't sleep.

It wasn't because of anything on her mind, but rather due to the fact that she decided to drink coffee while watching a late night TV movie with Yui. The clock dimly glowed green in the darkness, and Azusa could just barely make out the numbers displayed there:

_It's already 1AM,_ she thought. _I don't usually stay up this late on a normal night._

Yui was sound asleep next to her on the bed, her hair spread in every direction. Azusa smiled, knowing that Yui would most likely wake up with a full head of bed-hair, and it would take forever to tame it. The brown-haired girl mumbled something about chocolate before letting out a soft snore.

Other than Yui's snoring, there were no other sounds to be heard in the room. The night outside was quiet, with the occasional breeze flowing through the open window. Shivering a bit, Azusa pulled the covers off of herself and got up to close the window. She would definitely have to do something about this new-found habit where the two girls would not wear any clothes to bed. Sure, it lessens the laundry load, but sometimes it's nice to be warm in bed too.

Azusa tried to close the window as quietly as possible, but the click was still loud enough to wake up Yui. She sat up, hair messy, and rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry, I was feeling a bit cold."

"It's . . . *yawn* alright, Azu-nyan," mumbled Yui from the bed. "Bathroom . . . brb."

Yui rolled out of bed and groggily stumbled her way to the door, while Azusa giggled.

"Who says 'brb' outside of texting, huh?"

"I dunno, but I'm too sleepy to . . ."

Yui didn't finish that sentence, as she tripped over her electric guitar in the darkness and fell over.

"Owwie . . . I fell over," she groaned, rubbing her bottom.

Azusa came rushing to Yui's side.

"Are you okay, Yui?"

"I'm fine, I just didn't see Giitah in the dark, eheheh."

"Alright then, upsy-daisy."

Azusa pulled her girlfriend up by the arms, and Yui wobbled a bit before she regained her balance.

"O-kay! Now to really go to the bathroom before I hurt myself."

She opened the door and walked into the hallway. Azusa watched her at the doorway, and then turned around to head back to bed, when she heard the sound of footsteps and felt Yui turn her around to face her.

"Did you forget some – " she started to say, before Yui gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Thanks for helping me! Love you, gotta go potty, okay bye!" she said quickly before racing to the bathroom.

Azusa stood there, caught off-guard and red in the face. As always, Yui never fails to keep things from getting too boring around here.

She smiled once more, and climbed back into the covers and fell asleep almost instantly.


	6. Things You Said Through Your Teeth

Another lazy morning.

Believe it or not, Yui can actually get up in the morning before Azusa on rare occasions. This time, it was because of the fact that Azusa drank coffee last night, and they were awake at 1 in the morning. Yui felt like Azusa deserved some rest, and let her sleep in. She poured herself some cereal and milk and flipped on the TV at a low volume. The first signs of spring were approaching, and that meant more wind and more pollen.

Yui looked over at the clock. 11AM, and surprisingly, Azusa was still asleep.

_Perfect, this great! I can surprise her by cleaning up and cooking for her!_

She was getting better at cooking thanks to the combined efforts of Azusa and Ui teaching her. She improved greatly since the first time she attempted to cook something, which resulted in a visit from the fire department and a lot of apologies to the surrounding neighbors.

_Now then, what to cook?_

Skimming through a cookbook that Ui lent her, Yui stopped on an interesting looking dish: "The Microwave 1-Minute Ham & Egg Breakfast Bowl."

Yui read out loud:

"Step 1: Line the bottom of an 8-oz ramekin or custard cup with ham slice, folding ham in half, if necessary. POUR egg over ham.

Step 2: MICROWAVE on HIGH 30 seconds; stir. MICROWAVE until egg is almost set, 15 to 30 seconds longer.

Step 3: TOP with cheese. SERVE immediately."

_That sounds yummy and easy. I can make this, definitely!_

. . .is what she thought, going into the task.

Azusa walked into the kitchen to find eggshells all over the floor, yellow spatter covering the inside of the microwave, and Yui sitting despondently at the table, pouting and staring at the bowl sitting before her. The eggs were mushy and didn't look fully cooked in some areas, while somehow being burnt in other areas. The ham seemed to be sitting under the mess of eggs, but Azusa couldn't see it, save one burnt end poking out of the edge. Yui looked up at Azusa with tears in her eyes.

"I-I-I'm sorry . . . I wanted to surprise you by making food, but I guess I wasn't even ready for this just yet . . ."

Azusa picked up a fork and scooped out some of the egg-ham mixture in the bowl. She put it in her mouth and chewed slowly.

"Mmm, it could use some work, but it's good regardless."

"Really!? B-But it's all soggy and bad-looking . . ." said Yui.

"Try some," said Azusa, holding out the fork. Yui tried some, and then smiled.

"Yum. It's not as bad as I imagined."

"You'll get better at cooking soon enough, don't worry. Just make sure that someone's keeping an eye on you in the kitchen, alright?"

Instead of responding, Yui decided to forcefully hug Azusa while sitting down. Since she was hugging Azusa's midsection, most of the air left her lungs, and as she tried to take a breath, she forgot that she still had food in her mouth and started choking.

"Oh no! Water! Water! Don't die, Azu-nyan!" yelled Yui, panicking.

Azusa gulped down some water, and then started coughing up little bits of egg and ham.

"Azu-nyan?" asked Yui, quietly.

After several deep breaths, Azusa looked up at Yui, eyes watering.

"Y-You're lucky I love you, hun." she managed to say through gritted teeth.

"Um . . . I'll help you clean up?"

"Good choice."

As Yui scrambled to find a mop, Azusa plonked herself onto Yui's empty chair, then let out a sigh.

What a way to start off the morning…


	7. Things You Said Over The Phone

"Wait, what do you mean you're stuck?"

"My cab's stuck in traffic, there's a big accident here in the city, so I probably won't be back until late."

"Yui, are you going to be alright?"

"Don't worry Azu-nyan, I'll be back in your arms before you know it. You won't be lonely for much longer"

"I'm not . . . well . . . maybe I'm a little lonely . . ."

"See, I told you. Don't worry, I'll get home safe. You'll see. Okay, talk to you soon. MUAH!"

"Talk to you later . . ."

Azusa stared at her phone until it made a beeping noise and Yui's icon disappeared. A big sigh escaped her lips, and she flopped down on her back on the couch. Yui went on a shopping date with Ui at the shopping center on the other side of town, and Azusa decided that she would stay home and take care of their new kitten. The little black cat was a new addition to the family, and Azusa and Yui were thrilled to have a pet around the apartment. Yui originally wanted to call the cat Azusa/Azu-nyan #2, while Azusa had wanted to call the cat Yui #2. In the end, they decided on the temporary name of "YuiAzu," and haven't changed the name since.

The kitten jumped onto the couch and nuzzled itself against Azusa's head. She reached over and stroked the cat's head, and went back to her phone. She scrolled through the photos on her phone, which were a collection of photos of Yui's face, both of them together, the cat, and occasionally one or both of them with no clothes on, in various positions. Blushing a bit whenever she came across one of those pictures, Azusa focused less on Yui's naked body and more on Yui's expressions. They were always so carefree, so happy, especially when Yui was with Azusa. She missed her, even if she had only been gone for a few hours. YuiAzu mewed from somewhere else on the couch, and Azusa turned her head to stare at the cat. They held eye contact for a few seconds, and the cat's eyes almost seemed to say

_Call her._

Azusa went to her recent calls and clicked on Yui's name. She turned on her speakerphone setting and waited. The phone rang twice and then Yui answered.

"Azu-nyan?"

"I miss you, okay? I couldn't wait to call you again, I miss hearing your voice. I really want you back here right now."

"Um, okay then. Count to three, for me?"

Confused, Azusa wondered what that meant.

"Um . . . one . . . two . . . three?"

At "three," the door lock clicked and then swung open. Azusa jumped up and ran to the door, to be greeted by a mountain of grocery bags and small boxes. Peering around the pile, she saw a familiar face and smiled.

"What are you doing home? You said that you were stuck in traffic."

Yui's legs started trembling.

"H-H-H-Help me . . ."

Azusa and Yui worked together to get all the groceries onto the kitchen table. After getting Yui a glass of water, she said,

"After you hung up, the traffic cleared up just like that. We managed to make it home in record time, and then you suddenly called just as I was putting the key in the lock. Surprised?"

"YES! I thought for a second that you teleported home or something!"

"Hehe, but you're happy, right?"

Yui smiled and waited for Azusa's response.

Azusa was extremely happy, to the point of bursting.

"Just . . . the happiest I've been all day. I'm pretty sure that YuiAzu missed you too, right?" she said, looking over at the kitten. In response, YuiAzu meowed happily, and went over and jumped on to Yui's lap. Coming over to Yui's side of the table, she wrapped her arms around her.

"You make me happy no matter what, so just keep being you, and don't ever change. I want to keep trying to make you smile, as well."

"Aw, don't say that, you always make me smile."

"Thanks"

"But seriously, what did you buy? You must have spent a fortune on these."

"No, we didn't pay for anything. Mugi-chan went ahead and paid for everything because she owed us from that time that we helped fix up her new house."

"I . . . see. Geez, how will this ever fit in the fridge?"

"Um, about that . . ." said Yui.

"Huh?" said Azusa, just as the doorbell rang. Azusa went and opened it to discover a delivery man, with several large boxes.

"Hey, where do you want me to put the deluxe fridge and the new washer and dryer?"

Azusa stared at the man, and then at the large boxes. She turned and shouted into the house:

"YUI!"


	8. Things You Didn't Say At All

"Yui! Who said that you could get a deluxe refrigerator, and the newest model of washer and dryer?!"

"Well, Mugi-chan said that she'd pay for everything, and so I . . . may have taken advantage of that fact. Ehehehe."

"Didn't Ui-chan say anything about you taking advantage of Mugi-chan like that? She was with you, wasn't she?"

"Um, she went home with a new fridge, washer and dryer as well," mumbled Yui.

"WHAT?! First of all, we still need to pay electric and water bills. These things are gonna make the bills skyrocket . . . we're both working but they won't be able to cover any of these appliances!"

Azusa stood there in the living room, surrounded by the large boxes, while Yui kneeled on the living room floor in apology. It's been a while since Azusa had blown a fuse like this, but hopefully this won't turn into another breakup situation like last time . . .

"I'm sorry, they just looked so shiny and useful, and Ui was the same way, she wanted them too, and so Mugi-chan had two sets shipped to our houses and . . ."

"Yui! C'mon, you can't just impulse-buy like that, even if you don't have to pay for it. It's not right, especially not to Mugi-chan."

"Yes, hun . . ." apologized Yui. At times like these, even if she wanted to say anything, it'd only make things worse to interrupt Azusa in the middle of a rant such as these.

"And furthermore . . ." started Azusa, before the house phone started ringing. She paused, glared at Yui, and went to pick up the call.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Azusa-chan? It's Mugi!"

"Hi Mugi-chan! We just received your _packages_ a few minutes ago."

"Oh, yes, please tell Yui-chan that today's shopping experience was so much fun!"

"I will. So, care to explain?"

"Of course, so you know how I got curious and accidentally won the lottery a few months back?"

"I heard from Mio. And?"

"And, since I won so much, I decided to pay you guys back for helping me move into my new house, and redecorating and whatnot, so I paid off all of your guys' houses for the next ten years. I had to ask my parents for some help on that, but basically, you guys had free everything for the past couple of months, and so on. Since that included water and electricity as well as Wi-Fi, I figured that some new appliances would be useful for that situation. Well, I gotta go, I have to go order ones for Mio and Ritsu's place now. Bye! Keep in touch! **click**"

"Azu-nyan?" asked Yui. Azusa stood there, dumbfounded.

"H-How come you never told me that everything was paid off?"

"Um, I forgot? That was that same night that you and I were drinking wine and then you took off your . . ."

"T-That's not the point! You never mentioned it to me. I was being conservative with the water and electricity, and that's why I freaked out over the deluxe stuff."

"But it's good, right? We can store more groceries, and we can do more laundry more easily, and . . ."

"Yui . . ." interrupted Azusa.

"Yeah?"

"Next time, try to tell me when something like this happens? And please be careful if you ever get close to impulse-buying, alright?"

"Y-Yes, Azu-nyan," said Yui, glad that things didn't get any worse.

"But seriously, though, how are we going to get everything set up? We can't move these ourselves. Can we?"

"Oh, about that . . ."

"Yes?"

The phone rang once more, and then this time Azusa put it on speaker.

"Oh, Azusa? It's Mugi again. The maintenance men will be there in fifteen minutes to switch out your appliances, if that's alright with you?"

Not even bothering to answer or hang up, Azusa turned once more to Yui, who was still kneeling in the living room.

"Yuiiiiiiii!"

"I tried to tell you, but the phone rang!"

"Stop me next time if it's something important like that."

"I would, but you get scary when you're angry . . ."

"Oh . . . sorry . . ."

"It's okay. Um, can I get up now? My feet are asleep. . ."

"Oh okay, hun, I'll help you."

Meanwhile, the phone was left forgotten on the table, with a faint voice coming from the speaker.

"Um . . . Azusa? Hellooooo? Anyone there. . ."


	9. Things You Said Under The Stars And In The Grass

"Azu-nyaaaan! Hold my hand, it's scary out here!"

"It's just a shortcut through the alley to get to the park, Yui, c'mon!"

"Nooo, I don't wanna!"

"*sigh* Come on, hun, if you don't hurry, we're gonna miss the show!" said Azusa, holding out her hand. Her usual twintails were replaced by a single high ponytail. If she were a little bit bigger, she could pass for Mio. Yui couldn't help but feel a little bit braver knowing that her girlfriend Azusa was there with her. She took Azusa's hand, and together, they raced through the alley and made it to the park in record time.

The park was jam-packed with music lovers, as an indie concert was being held there that night. New bands and unknown music groups were given a chance to showcase their music and show the town what they could do. Incidentally, all of the girls found the flier, and jumped at the chance to sign up as Houkago Tea-Time once more. Azusa probably could have signed up the Wakaba Girls to perform as well, but they were busy that night.

The girls performed all of their favorite songs from their high school days, including Fuwa Fuwa Time, My Love Is A Stapler, and U&I. Some of their songs, they just didn't have time to perform since they didn't have a lot of practices together due to their work lives, plus they were only on stage for a set amount of time. Mio and Ritsu playfully headed toward the food stalls, linked arm-in-arm, and Mugi immediately went for the game booths to win some prizes. Yui and Azusa held hands and wandered through the crowds. They found an empty spot underneath a tree, a grassy spot up on a hill. Azusa laid out a blanket that she brought, and after setting down their instruments, they laid down side by side, facing the stars.

"These concerts always go by too fast, don't they?" asked Yui.

"Yeah. They're so much fun, though! I'm so glad that we can still play together as a band!" Azusa said, still giddy from their performance. It had been so long since the five of them were so in-sync during a performance, and everyone considered it to be their best performance to date.

"Sooo, what's the plan for the rest of the night? Just hanging out around the concert area? Get some food?" asked Yui. "Or, maybe we can just stay here all night?"

"Yui, I think they'll ask everyone to leave at some point."

"Oh, right . . . "

Silence fell upon the pair, and they quietly just stared at the stars, holding hands.

Yui was the first one to break the silence, sitting up and stretching before looking down at the smiling Azusa. Azusa stared up at her girlfriend's face, framed in light by the nearby park lamp, and thought to herself,

_And here I thought they called me an angel when they wrote me that song._

Yui smiled, and then stared up once more at the stars.

"Do you think that we'll really make it to Budokan one day?" she asked.

"Mmm . . . maybe. Maybe, if we quit our jobs and focused solely on music, then yeah, we might have a shot. But realistically . . ."

"I know, but I just like thinking that we may have a shot at it someday. At least, I hope so . . . "

Azusa squeezed Yui's hand a little tighter.

"I love you. I think that we can. As long as we hold on to that dream, and keep moving towards it, even if we only take little steps at a time. And even if we don't, we can still look back on life, through the good and bad times, and be honestly glad that we are chasing that same dream together, as a band."

"Azu-nyan . . ." said Yui, tears forming in her eyes. "You always know just what to say! I LOVE YOU!"

Yui pounced on top of Azusa, tickling and hugging her, rolling them both off the blanket and into the grass. They both giggled and hugged each other, as they rolled down the small hill and into a patch of tall grass. This time, Azusa was on top of Yui, pinning her arms down and keeping their chests close together.

"Let's shoot for Budokan, yeah? Together?" said Azusa. Yui smiled in response.

"Yeah, definitely, Azu-nyan!" she said, with stars in her eyes.

Azusa took Yui's head in her hands and leaned down towards her, both of them closing their eyes in anticipation, when suddenly,

"Hey, don't leave us out of your dream, guys!"

They both opened their eyes, and saw that Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi were standing in a circle surrounding the lovestruck couple.

"Sorry to interrupt, but you guy's definitely can't make it to Budokan without the three of us," said Ritsu.

"That's right! We're a band, and we're a family, after all!" said Mugi.

"We made it this far, so why don't we chase down that dream, together?" said Mio.

Both girls in the grass looked up at their fellow band members, and smiled.

"Yeah!" they both cried out. Yui then quickly grabbed Azusa and pulled her into a spur-of-the-moment make-out session, quickly forgetting that the rest of them were standing right there.

. . .

. . .

"So, um, can you guys get up now? Things are getting kind of awkward," said Mio. Ritsu elbowed Mio.

"Haha, Mio, look at Mugi," she said, gesturing to the blonde girl. Mugi was holding her face in her hands, an epic nosebleed running down her face. Her eyes were sparkling, and she was breathing heavily as her fantasies once again took her over.

"Should we . . . ?" asked Mio.

"No, let her live out her fantasies. It's healthier," said Ritsu.


	10. Things You Said While We Were Driving

"O-kay, Yui, just ease your way into it."

"Um, Azu-nyan, what's the stick for again?"

"Hun, it's to put the car into drive, reverse, or park."

"Okay, what about this lever thing?"

"It's . . ."

"Cool, the wipers came on!"

"*sigh*"

A small car sat in the parking lot outside the girls' apartment. In the driver's seat, the taller girl was fiddling with all the knobs and buttons on the dashboard, and playing with the turn signal and emergency lights. In the passenger seat, the smaller dark-haired girl became mildly frustrated at her girlfriend's lack of focus. Still, it was her responsibility to teach Yui how to drive since Azusa was the one who got her license first.

"Put this lever here to put the car into reverse, okay?"

"Like this?"

"Yeah, exactly like- wait whY IS THE CAR MOVING ALREADY?!"

"Whoawhoawhoawhoa!"

Yui panicked and stomped on the brake pedal, immediately stopping the car with a jolt and made Azusa almost choke against her seatbelt.

"CAREFUL! That was a close one. Yui, did you leave the emergency brake down or something?"

"What's the emergency brake?"

Azusa groaned. This might take a while.

15 stressful minutes later, the car slowly inched its way down a deserted road towards the nearby grocery store parking lot. At this time of day, there weren't many cars there, so this was the perfect place to practice.

"Good job going straight so far, Yui, you're doing well," said Azusa. She appeared calm, but she couldn't hide the fact that her hand had a death grip on the door handle. Yui carefully eased her way into the entrance to the lot, and stopped near the doors to the store.

"Um, is this how that works?"

"You parked well enough, but next time try to park within the lines, okay?

"Roger that, Commander!"

"What?"

"Nevermind . . ."

Azusa shook her head and smiled. It was a bit of a rough start, but Yui was finally learning how to drive!

"Awesome. Okay, so go see if you're able to park over there, between those white lines," commanded Azusa.

"Okay, here we go. . ."

As the car slowly turned toward the open spot, she couldn't help but notice that Yui's hands were shaking ever so slightly. It wasn't due to the car's movement; Yui tends to shake a little like that whenever she got scared of something, so Azusa has learned to pick up on those subtle movements and be there to comfort her. Thankfully, Yui isn't as frightened as Mio used to be, back in high school. And even Mio eventually grew out of that scared phase, thanks to continuous forced horror movie nights that the five of them would occasionally spend together.

"I did it!"

Azusa looked out of the car, and saw that the car was perfectly lined within the confines of the painted lines.

"Impressive. You really do learn things fast, don't you?"

Yui smiled proudly and punched the air in celebration.

"Yay! * _smack_ * Owwie . . ."

Unfortunately for Yui, she forgot that there was a car roof in the space where she happened to be punching.

"That hurt . . . Azu-nyan, kiss it to make the pain go away."

"Yui, that's like the fourth time in two days that I did that for you."

"Kiss it! Kiss it! Kiss it!" Yui chanted, waving her hand in front of Azusa's now-blushing face.

"F-Fine, but you're gonna have to drive us home in return, okay?"

"Yes, hun . . ." said Yui. More driving, more stress for the ride home.

Azusa gingerly took Yui's hand in her own, and raised it up to her own lips. A quick peck a little past Yui's knuckles, and then Azusa released the hand and avoided eye contact. Yui blushed, seeing Azusa's cute reaction to a simple kiss on the hand.

_I feel like such a princess, and Azu-nyan_ _is my_ _prin_ _. . . cess? How does that work?_

Azusa, blushing furiously, peeked in Yui's direction, then looked out the window once more. Yui's large eyes were focused on her, and she couldn't help but be embarrassed. Then, Yui smiled.

"You're cute, you know that?"

Azusa determinedly looked out the window as she responded.

"You tell me a hundred times."

"Well how 'bout a hundred – and – one? You're cute!" said Yui

Azusa finally found the courage to look Yui in the eyes. Maintaining eye contact, Azusa responded,

"You're cute too. But calling me cute won't excuse you from driving us home, you know."

"Aw, you found out? But I don't wanna drive anymore, I just like it when you drive us around and- "

"No excuses, that's what you get."

"For what?"

"I don't know, just go"

"Fine . . ."

As the car started to pull out of the parking lot, Azusa snuck a quick kiss on Yui's cheek.

"You're so getting it tonight, Yui."

"Hehe, am I? And what am I being punished for?"

"Not really for punishment, but just for being cute."

"Aw, how sweet, Azu-nyan!"

"Focus on the road!"

"Wahh!"

The side of the car had drifted to the curb, and Yui accidentally drove over the edge, causing the whole car to bounce as the wheels landed on the pavement. Azusa bounced in her seat, trying to yell at Yui and keep them from getting killed. Thankfully, despite all the yelling and stress, they managed to make it back home in one piece.

"Phew. Thank God we're home."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" said Yui.

"Nothing, nothing. Help me set up dinner tonight?"

"Yay, food!"

As the two clambered into the house, they couldn't help but giggle, knowing about the adventure they went on today. Still, even though Yui was a quick learner, it would be a long while before she could learn how to drive a car by herself.

"Next time, be careful, okay? I don't wanna lose you." said Azusa.

"Don't worry, I'm not that bad a driver, am I?"

"You're not that bad."

"Thanks"


	11. Things You Said With No Space Between Us

Azusa came home to an empty house. She gets off her accounting job much earlier than Yui, who currently works with Mugi at an animal shelter. Yui absolutely loves her job, as she really loves being around cute animals, and she is able to take tea breaks with Mugi whenever they work on the same shift. Taking off her work clothes, Azusa slipped into the shower and started to wash her hair.

After her shower, Azusa wrapped a towel around her head and proceeded to draw little doodles in the steamy mirror. She was definitely picking up some habits from Yui. First the whole thing where the two of them sleep naked, but now Azusa has started to absentmindedly doodle cute things on paper or notes when she lost focus. She had just finished tracing a guitar on the mirror when she saw a large shadow on the foggy mirror shift. She immediately felt an unpleasant sensation go down her back, as if someone behind her was planning on doing something to her. Reaching back several years to the useful self-defense handbook that Ui gave her, Azusa immediately brought her leg up and kicked behind her. Her foot connected with something squishy, so she assumed that she managed to strike the assailant's midsection. She immediately followed up with an elbow that was blocked by the unknown figure, which in turn caused Azusa to fall and knock the both of them onto the ground.

"Whoever you are, I'm warning you- "

"A-Azu-nyan . . ."

"Y-Yui?! What the heck? I could have killed you. What were you thinking?!"

Yui, unable to move, as she was splayed on the ground with a naked Azusa on top of her, weakly replied,

"I wanted to surprise you in the bath, but I guess that . . . wasn't the best idea . . ."

Azusa's heartbeat lowered to a more manageable pace, and said

"Are you alright? I kicked pretty hard. You didn't get seriously hurt, did you?"

Nope, cuz you didn't kick me. You actually kicked this little guy."

"Huh?"

Looking down at the floor space next to them, Azusa found a huge teddy bear lying on its back on the bathroom floor. A slight dent in the bear's stomach indicated that Azusa had indeed kicked the bear, which Yui was hiding behind in an attempt to surprise her.

Azusa's expression softened at the sight of the bear. Though it's over half her size, she was thrilled that Yui had brought home a gift just for her.

"Hehe, it made me think of you because it's cute and I love to hug it and it's so soft, and- "

"Yui, did you get that bear for me, or for you?"

"Ummm, next question."

"Okay, should I get off you? You might still be in pain from me falling on top of you."

"No, I'm good," said Yui, hugging Azusa close to her own body. Azusa couldn't move due to Yui hugging her extremely tightly. No matter how much she struggled, the older girl had a tight grip on her.

"Yui, I can't move. We gotta get up, I just showered and you need to as well . . . "

"Nope. It's hug time."

*Sigh*

Azusa gave up on struggling, and just gave in to the cuddles. She couldn't help but laugh, though, because it was random days like this that made her week more interesting than not.


	12. Things You Said When You Were Scared

"Where the heck did those two disappear to?"

"Ritsu, leave them alone. They just want to spend some time together."

"They . . . they live together, Mio. They see each other every day. They eat together, they sleep in the same bed, they've already gone all the – "

"O-KAY! Too much info for my tastes, thank you very much."

"Seriously? But you and I . . ."

"STOP! Ugh, Mugi, help me out, please?" said Mio to the blonde standing next to the two of them.

"No, no, please continue, Ritsu was just getting to the good part," she said with a smile.

"Mugi . . ." said Mio, staring at her with wide eyes. Mugi may be smart and sweet, but she can have really . . . interesting tastes at times like these.

"A-Anyways, where did you think Yui and Azusa disappeared to?"

"It's Halloween, so probably off behind some building making out while we do all the work to get candy."

"Who's making out?" said a voice from behind them.

"UwaaaAAAH!" yelled Ritsu, dropping her half-filled bag of candy. Yui and Azusa were standing there, with a surprising amount of candy in their bags.

"Where have you been? And what's in the bags?" asked Mio, while Ritsu sadly started picking up her fallen candies.

"Yui was having a conversation with the old lady in that house back there, and she was so thrilled that someone like Yui was so nice to her that she let us take the whole bowl." Sure enough, Yui and Azusa's bags were filled to the brim with large candy.

"Whoa! You guys snagged the deluxe bars? Geez, that old lady is seriously handing out the good stuff. Think she has any more left?" asked Ritsu.

"I think a better question would be, is this enough proof that Yui and I weren't 'making out' in some alley?" said Azusa.

"I said behind a house, who said anything about an alley?"

"Wha? Um, w-well, I meant to say h-house, that's um, yeah . . ." said Azusa, flustered. This didn't surprise the others, as Azusa tended to be very giddy nowadays thanks to a certain Yui Hirasawa.

"Uh huh. Hey, Yui, were you guys making out earlier?" Ritsu called out to Yui, who was chatting with Mugi and swapping candies.

"Making out? Yeah, we were, why?"

"YUI! Ugh, I can't believe you!"

Shocked that Yui actually told them that, something that was supposed to be between the two of them, Azusa angrily stomped away from the group, towards another path.

"Um, does she do that often?" Mio asked.

"Only sometimes. She gets over it really quickly."

"I see," said Mugi. "Shouldn't you go after her?"

"Yeah, thanks. I'll catch up with you guys back at Mio and Ricchan's, alright? Thanks!"

Yui started to run after Azusa. As the others watched as their forms disappeared into the dark, Ritsu turned to the others.

"Well, it's not like it's a surprise that they were. I mean, Yui kisses Azusa all the time in front of us." She started counting on her fingers.

"There was that time after they got back together, there was that time back at our place that they though we weren't looking, there was the concert night where we found them in the grass. I'm used to seeing those two kissing now that it's almost normal. Weird, right?"

Mio didn't respond, as she only blushed at the memories of those moments. Apparently, Mio wasn't as used to it as Ritsu was. Mugi . . .

"Um, Mugi?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry, I was lost in thought."

"About?"

"About whether or not you two make out as much as those two do."

This time, both Ritsu and Mio reacted.

"MUGI!"

Meanwhile, Azusa finished stomping her frustrations into the road and stopped walking so that she could figure out where she was. However . . .

"Um, where did I go? Is this, um . . ."

Turning on the spot, Azusa couldn't see anything through the darkened paths. She had stormed through the trees in the park, and ended up in a section of the park where most of the lamps weren't turned on. Except for the lone lamp that shone its light on Azusa, she couldn't tell whether she was close to or further away from the place where they were.

The street lamp Azusa was standing under started flickering. Jumping slightly, she looked up nervously at the lamp, and then started looking around into the darkness. She started trembling in her nervousness, and jumped at small noises. Suddenly, she heard the bushes near her rustling. Was there something in the darkness, waiting to snatch her up and kill her?

Well, if she was going to die, she would die fighting. Azusa took a fighting stance, ready to take on what's coming.

And what came out of the bushes was . . .

"Yui?"

The confused and slightly wobbly brunette stumbled out of the bushes, with a worried look on her face.

"Azu-nyan, don't wander off like that, please. The park is scary at night, especially when they don't turn on the street lamps."

"Yui . . ."

"Azu-nyan?"

"DON'T FREAKING SCARE ME LIKE THAT!" yelled Azusa.

"Wah! I'm sorry, I tried finding you, and then I couldn't find you, so I was just wandering, and I heard what sounded like a cat, so I went to investigate and it turns out that you were wimpering and it sounded like a little kitty, and I . . ."

"Wait, wait, I was making cat noises? I – I don't make cat noises, do I?"

"Only when you're scared. Like when you get a nightmare, and you make noises in your sleep, so I pet your head until you calm down?"

"I do what? And you do what now?"

"You didn't know?"

"No . . ."

Thinking back to why she stormed away in the first place, Azusa realized that for the past few months, she had been getting upset over little things. Yui causing her to choke, scaring her, the incident with Mugi and their paid-off apartment and appliances, and even just telling their close friends that they were kissing. Sure, they were bad, but not that much. In fact, they really aren't anything to be really mad about.

"Yui . . ."

"Yeah?"

Azusa looked up, tears in her eyes.

"I – I'm soRRYYYYY . . . I – I always get mad at you for the smallest things, and you never seem to get mad at me, and I *hic* don't really like getting in fights with you, and I'm really sorry . . ."

Azusa's sobbing apology gets cut off as Yui closes the distance between the two of them and hugs her tight, burying Azusa's head in her chest. Azusa looks up at Yui's face.

"I'm scared. I'm scared of losing you because of these little things. They're small, but that's what happened to us the first time. . ."

"Ah, ah, ah, shhh . . ." Yui stops her there, and allows her to wipe her face on the shoulder of her costume. "Yes, hun, we have little arguments and even times when you yell at me. Yes, you get angry at small things sometimes, and a lot of the time it's my fault. But, "

Yui pauses, lifting Azusa's head gently until they were eye to eye.

" . . . but, I really don't mind. I want to listen to you, and I want you to let it all out. Bottling everything in isn't good for you, after all. I learned that being patient is better for a relationship, because these little fights shouldn't be the thing that breaks us apart. Remember when you first saw me in Ricchan's house? When I saw you, after so long, I forgot about all the little fights. I forgot about all the negative things that happened in our relationship, and I was already ready to forgive you. Whether or not you were willing to take me back, I wouldn't have minded either way, as long as we ended things on a good note.

Azusa sniffed, and then smiled.

"You know, you can be really deep and emotional when you want to be."

"I know. I'm happy when you're happy, after all!"

"Thanks . . . um, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, Azu-nyan?"

"Where are we, and how do we get home?"

"Uh . . ."

At that point, Yui's phone rang. Picking it up, Ritsu's voice echoed through the phone speaker.

"Can you guys get over here soon? You do realize that you're in the park that's literally a block from my house, right?

"Wait, we what?!"

Looking past a set of trees, it became clear that Ritsu was standing pretty close to the edge of the park, and they could even see Mio's face in the upstairs window, trying to find them.

"Hehe, well, looks like we're not as lost as we thought, right Azu-nyan?"

"Y-Yeah, I guess."

"Save your mushy times for later, you guys. We have candy to sort!" said Ritsu on the phone, and then immediately hung up.

"Race you?" said Yui.

Azusa wiped away a few last tears from her eyes, before breaking into a smile.

"Yeah!"


	13. Things You Said Too Quietly

It was a Houkago Tea-Time hang-out day.

The five of them had assembled around Ritsu and Mio's coffee table, catching up with one another and reminiscing about times gone by. As per the norm, tea and goodies littered the table, both home-made and packaged, as Mio was experimenting with making sweets and Mugi still brought in sweets from her parents' house.

Ritsu brought out some of their old tapes and CDs that they recorded from their old band days, and listened to how their voices and playing sounded back in high school and college. Granted, they were still amateurs, but they've greatly improved since their start back in high school. Ritsu was finally able to keep a steady beat through an entire song; Yui was consistently improving her playing, thanks to late-night jam sessions with Azusa; Mio's song-writing style remained the same, but the lyrics were more consistent and the songs flowed better than they had in the past, and Mugi had gone back to playing piano for contests on her days off, so she was already reaching the master levels of piano.

"Aw, geez, I remember when Mio wrote this one," said Ritsu, munching on a cookie.

"What was I thinking, I should have changed this lyric so that it . . ." said Mio, cursing her past self's mindset.

"Don't say that, Mio, your songs were so wonderful!" said Mugi, her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Still . . ."

"No, I agree," said Azusa. "Your songs really shared the message of what Houkago Tea-Time really meant to us."

"You mean like rice, candy, sugar, and tea?" said Ritsu, eyeing Mio and Yui, the main songwriters.

"Ehehe, most of the songs I wrote were about food. I couldn't help it, I was hungry every time I started writing," said Yui. Mio blushed, unable to argue with that.

"O-Kay! That's it, we're gonna get started on writing a new song, tonight!" said Ritsu, standing up.

"Ooh!" said Mugi, stars in her eyes.

"Right now?" asked Mio.

"Aww, but the tea is so good, that I don't wanna think!" whined Yui. Azusa elbowed Yui.

"Quit it, it'd be awesome to write some new songs for the future!" Azusa said to the others.

"Then it's decided. Tonight, we come up with new songs!" announced Ritsu loudly. Almost immediately, the landlady to the apartment complex started banging on the door, yelling at them to keep the noise down. While Ritsu started repeatedly apologizing to the old lady, Yui was starting to grow sleepy, and in the end nodded off on Azusa's shoulder.

While the initial goal of them writing a new song gave the rest of them energy to discuss possible song themes, the lateness of their gathering coupled with the strong tea eventually got to them as well, so they eventually knocked out where they were sitting around the table. Mio latched onto Ritsu as if she were a body pillow, and Mugi took a nearby blanket and rested her head on the side of the couch. Azusa fell asleep propped up against the other end of the couch, with Yui on her shoulder. Eventually, the sound of soft snoring filled the room.

Several hours later, Yui woke up. She lifted her head from Azusa's shoulder, which in turn woke her up as well. They both looked around the room, and saw that the five of them had fallen asleep once more around Mio and Ritsu's table. Yui put an arm around Azusa and the two of them just stared at the others sleeping peacefully.

Yui looked over at Azusa, and her mouth moved, but Azusa couldn't hear any sound coming from Yui. Seems like she wanted to tell her something without waking up the others.

"What? Can't hear you," whispered Azusa.

"I said . . ." whispered Yui, but the rest was lost to the quietness of her voice.

"Still can't hear you, hun," whispered Azusa.

"Urgh . . . _I said 'Can we make out while the rest of them are asleep?'"_

At that point, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi all twitched at the same time. Azusa looked at them, and Mugi immediately hid her eyes behind a pillow in a very obvious way. Ritsu did a good job pretending to be asleep, but her red face and ears gave her away. Poor Mio wasn't fast enough in hiding the fact that she was spying, so she ended up burying her face in Ritsu's shoulder.

" _You guys were awake this whole time?!"_ said Azusa.

"Hehe, you caught us," said Ritsu. "Yeah, your voice woke us up, Azusa, and then we tried to hear what Yui was saying, and what she said made us all react, I guess."

"You guess?!" said Mio, hitting her in the shoulder. "My heart won't stop beating. This is way too much for me . . ."

"Mugi-chan?"

"Ah, geez, here we go again," said Ritsu. Having hidden her face in the pillow, Mugi accidentally cut off her air supply for a little bit, and started becoming loopy with hallucinations of Yui / Azusa fantasies.

"Good, she's still breathing at least. Mio, point the fan towards her, please?"

"Got it."

While Mio kept by Mugi's side at the couch, Ritsu saw Yui and Azusa out the door. It was late, so the two walked home quickly, hand in hand.

"Yui, remind me to do something in the future."

"What's that?"

"Remind me to teach you how to mouth words properly. Especially for situations like this."


	14. Things You Said That Made Me Feel Like Shit

"And then, this one random guy came in, and he really smelled bad. He went to our bathroom on the other side of the bathroom, but we could still smell him all the way in the back," said Azusa, slouching over the table. After a long hard day at work, the girls usually took turns telling each other what happened during their day. Yui was nearby, wiping off dishes, while Azusa was busy peeling and eating tangerines, and stacking the peels in the center of the table.

"Sounds like you guys had an interesting time," said Yui, wiping a glass with a small towel.

"Yeah, it was disgusting. I'm not even sure why he was in our offices. He seemed homeless, so maybe he was just going to use our bathroom, but I'm just not sure."

"Hehe, I see. What else happened?"

"There were a lot of crazy people that came in to the offices for some reason. This one lady came in and was normal, until she started yelling for no reason, and had to be escorted out by the manager."

"Yelling for no reason?"

"No reason at all! Today's just been so weird!" said Azusa, sitting up. Yui finished the last plate and sat down across from Azusa, and picked up a tangerine.

"Well, for me, there was this one guy who came in with his dog, and he wasn't on a leash or anything!" said Yui. "The dog was running around the lobby, and jumping all over the other people there. We kept telling him that he should keep his dog under control, but he kept yelling that it's his dog and he could do what he wanted."

"What? That is weird! Why didn't he keep his dog in the car, then?"

"Huh, why would he do that?" asked Yui.

Azusa looked at Yui with a puzzled look.

"He could just put his dog in the car, and leave him in there, can't he?"

"Azu-nyan, that's not good. You're not supposed to leave dogs alone in the car, especially if it's hot out."

"But it wasn't very hot out today, and he could have rolled down the windows so the dog could breathe, right?" said Azusa

"Even so, it's still not good. The dog could starve or get dehydrated, because it's still a little hot out and there's no food in the car. There's a law where someone can get arrested for leaving the dog in the car unattended, and the owner could have just kept the dog on a leash so that they don't disturb the other customers."

" . . . "

"Azu-nyan?"

"I'm gonna go shower . . ."

Azusa stood up and left for the bathroom. Yui sat there, speechless. Did she say something wrong? What just happened?

Azusa didn't speak to Yui for the rest of the night. Despite Yui's constant attempts to start a conversation or ask what's wrong, Azusa remained silent. She climbed silently into bed and faced away from Yui. Yui, feeling less than thrilled, quietly accepted that Azusa just needed some alone time, and retreated to the couch with a book and a blanket. She made herself a cup of tea, turned on the nearby lamp, and started reading.

It was a few hours later that Yui had fallen asleep on the couch, head resting on the couch arm and her arm sticking out. The book had fallen out of her hand, and lay open on the ground. Azusa silently slipped out of the room, and went over to her sleeping girlfriend. She gently shook Yui's arm, and Yui awoke with a start.

"Huh? Azu-nyan? What's wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep . . ."

"C'mere," said Yui, offering the blanket. The two of them wrapped themselves in the large blanket, and sat there, holding hands. A long silence passed before Azusa finally spoke.

"What you said made me feel like shit, today."

"Why's that?"

Azusa looked over at Yui.

"The way you put it, to you it seemed like you were just answering me, but to me, there are days where I don't like being corrected or told that my idea is wrong. It felt like you were correcting me, and that made me feel like you were treating me like some little kid who didn't know better . . . I dunno . . ."

"Azu-nyan . . . thank you."

"For?"

"For telling me. I'm not too smart, but sometimes I say things without realizing it. I don't feel like I'm correcting you, so if I ever do, please tell me so that I can correct myself and do better next time."

Azusa squeezed Yui's hand.

"How do you do it? How do you put up with me, whether I'm angry with you or ignoring you on purpose? You're being so patient, it's so unlike how you were back in high school, when you would hug me constantly and get into antics with the others. It's not bad, but I'm always wondering how you stand being with me."

"Well, do you ever want me to leave you? No, right? I'm willing to stick with you till the very end, so please don't ever think that you're not worth my patience or my love for you."

Yui smiled, and Azusa could only stare in wonder. Yui took that silence a bit differently, and her face fell.

"Um . . . if I was correcting you that time . . . I'm sorry, I'll just be quiet. . ."

Azusa shook her head furiously, and then planted a bunch of kisses on Yui's lips.

"You're fine, I was just falling in love with you all over again."

"Aww, thank you!"

"No problem, Yui. So . . . I guess we're cool, right?"

"Cool!" said Yui, stifling a yawn in the process. Azusa giggled, and wiped a few tears on Yui's face that came from the yawn.

"Let's get to sleep, okay?"

Yui kissed Azusa softly.

"Yeah."


	15. Things You Said That I Wish You Hadn't

"YuiAzu, come back here with that!"

"Hey, don't go under there, get back here, kitty!"

The cat had stolen a pair of Azusa's panties, and was now running around the apartment while the two girls tried to catch her. She successfully squeezed under the couch, and while Yui and Azusa were trying to see under the couch, the cat shot out from under the other end of the couch and went down the hall. Out of breath, the two girls lay back on the floor, breathing heavily.

"This . . . *hah* . . . cat is giving me too much of a workout," gasped Azusa. Yui coughed and replied,

"Seriously, what does she want, stealing those while we weren't looking?"

"I guess she doesn't know the difference, and thinks it's something you can chew on.'

"Maybe . . ."

The fact that it was hot out, and that Yui refused to turn on the AC, didn't really help with matters. Azusa was sweating through her skin, and Yui could barely move.

"Hun, can't we turn on the AC? Mugi did pay for electricity, might as well use it."

"Nooo, I don't handle it very well."

"What does that even mean? It's meant to cool you down on hot days."

"I mean, like I get sick to my stomach because of it."

"But you're sweat is showing through your clothes. You're hot, so it'd be natural to turn on the air, right?"

"You're hot too, Azu-nyan! You make me happy that you're my girlfriend~"

"Yui, while I'm flattered that you consider me hot, if we don't get the air on, I'm going to die. And if I die, then you won't be able to be around me, and I'll be dead and melting in my coffin, and I'll be nothing but a puddle of bone goop in the ground. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"*Urk* I think that image made me even more sick than the thought of the AC . . ."

Azusa laughed.

"Don't you just love my logic? Now then, let's get the air turned on, since this makes you less sick than my imagery." She stood up, sidestepping the cat, who decided to run past and sit near Yui's head, with Azusa's panties nowhere to be found.

"Aw, I think she hid them somewhere," called out Yui from the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just get another pair to use later," said Azusa. She pressed a button, and the air conditioning whirred into life. A gentle breeze wafted through the room, and immediately the air temperature dropped significantly.

"Ahh, much better. See, it's not so bad . . ." Azusa stopped, realizing that she was talking to the cat, and not her girlfriend.

"Yui?"

The sound of the bathroom door echoed in response, followed by the sound of the toilet flushing. Sounds of moans and retches could be heard, and Azusa realized for the first time just how much the air conditioner affected Yui.

Yui walked out of the bathroom slowly, clutching her stomach. Her legs trembled as she walked, which prompted Azusa to support her to the living room couch.

"Are you alright? I didn't think you'd actually throw up."

"F-Fine . . . just, shut . . . off . . . air . . ."

"Sure . . ." said Azusa, pressing the off button on the AC. The whirring noise grew quieter, until the only sounds to be heard was the sound of the two girls breathing heavily in the newly heated interior.

"Ugh . . . this isn't helping either . . ." said Yui, still a little worse for the wear.

"You don't like hot, you don't like cold, what exactly do you like?"

"Y-You . . ."

"Haha, I see what you did there."

Within a few minutes, the two of them were sweating even worse than before. Even YuiAzu had given up on running around, and was napping on the couch. Yui eventually passed out on the ground due to the heat, so Azusa wrapped some ice in a towel and tried cooling her temperature down.

"Urgh, I can't take it much longer, Yui. Can't we turn it on, otherwise you'll be the one dying."

"I dunno anymore . . ."

"Which do you prefer, dying due to heat, or being a little nauseous 'cause of some air?"

"I . . . don't say stuff like that, it makes me feel bad . . . really wish you didn't . . . say that . . ."

"Hot air, cold air, it all makes you feel bad . . ."

"True . . ."

Azusa sighed, then went over to the new fridge.

"Azu-nyan, I'm sorry, I'll try my best to push through it, I'll be . . ."

Yui stopped, realizing that Azusa was standing over her, holding a package of ice cream sandwiches.

"Oh, you amazing thing you!" shouted Yui, jumping up at the sight of the frozen treats. She hugged Azusa, and then grabbed the box out of her hands.

"Well, you wouldn't get up any other way, and this is only way I can think of to cool you down without using the air."

"Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Hehe, you're welcome! Just don't finish everything at once, those are my favorite flavor as well."

Yui hugged the box to herself.

"Come and get them then!"

"Hey, don't run around like that, they'll melt before we get to eat them!"

"Nooooo!"

By the end of the afternoon, empty wrappers and bits of chocolate littered the floor. YuiAzu was quietly licking some ice cream from one of the wrappers.

"Yum! That hit the spot!" sighed Yui.

"I agree. That's one way to end the afternoon on a good note," agreed Azusa.

"Eww, my face is all sticky, I need to go shower soon."

"Here, let me get that for you."

Azusa leaned over and licked some melted chocolate off of Yui's face.

"H-Hey!" said Yui, giggling.

"Race you to the shower!"

"You're on!"

The shower door slammed shut, leaving YuiAzu alone with the empty wrappers. She mewed, then went over behind the bookshelf, and pulled something out of the corner. She dropped the hidden pair of Azusa's panties amidst the pile of ice cream sandwich wrappers, then went over to Yui and Azusa's bed to take a nap.


	16. Things You Said That I Wasn't Meant To Hear

Yui woke up to the cat sitting on her chest. Its bright eyes glowed in the darkness and seemed to stare into her soul. It was late. Yui didn't want to look at the clock to check the time, but it must have been pretty late since it was still pretty dark out. The soft lullaby of a piano video played from Azusa's laptop, and the dark-haired girl's breathing could be heard from the other side of the bed.

It's been a few years since that incident, and Yui had done her best to keep it in the back of her mind as much as possible. She wanted them to stay together forever, if possible. Ricchan and Mio and Mugi, everyone. She wanted to keep everyone together to the future, and maybe even to Budokan someday if they're good enough.

Azusa turned in her sleep, mumbling something about bananas, and then fell silent once more. Yui smiled, and then stood up. She grabbed her guitar and went into the living room, and started practicing as quietly as she could.

The morning sun leaked in through the open curtains. Azusa woke up and rubbed her eyes, noticing that Yui wasn't there. Going into the living room, she found Yui asleep on the couch. Her guitar was on the ground in front of her, face-down, and sheet music from various songs littered the floor.

"Yui, time to get up," said Azusa, gently shaking the sleeping brunette by the shoulder.

". . . not now . . . sleep . . ." came the sleepy response.

"Fine, I'll go make some coffee in the kitchen, okay?"

*snore*

"Guess that answers that question," said Azusa, heading towards the kitchen. Yui started mumbling nonsense between snores, which made Azusa smile.

The smell of coffee wafting through the apartment still didn't make Yui wake up. Azusa wondered just when Yui left the room, and how late she stayed up with the guitar.

"Hey, Yui, get up now. I've got food."

"I'm sorry . . ."

"Huh?" Azusa looked, but Yui was still asleep. Seems like she was talking in her sleep.

"What're you sorry about, hun?"

"I'm, I'm . . ."

"Y-You're . . . what exactly?"

"cheating . . ."

". . .HUH?!"

*snore*

"Y-You're . . . cheating . . .?"

". . . you . . ." came the response, and then more snoring.

Azusa sat there in silence. What could this possibly mean? Cheating? Yui? What?

She had to give herself some room to process this, to think about what Yui could mean by those words.

Yui, on the other hand, woke up completely clueless. She sat up a few hours later, almost forgetting where she was for a moment.

"Azu-nyan? Did you eat without me? Wait, WHA?! It's already afternoon? Wait, where are you?"

She heard a thump coming from the room. Going into the room and noticing that the closet door was closed, she crouched down and spoke through the door.

"Azu-nyan . . . ?"

"Go away . . ."

"D-Did I do something . . . to upset you?"

"Yes . . . no . . . go away . . ."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Leave me alone . . ."

"Oh, o-okay . . ."

Azusa didn't emerge from the closet. A few phone calls revealed that Mio and Ritsu were both at work, and Mugi said she would be there soon to try and help, but it takes her a while to get there from her apartment across town.

Repeated attempts to talk to Azusa were answered sometimes with 'Go away!,' and other times with silence. Yui wracked her brain, trying to figure out why Azusa would be feeling this way. Azusa gets irritated sometimes, but it's been so long since she's given Yui the silent treatment, not since . . .

_No, don't want to think about that. Must be something else . . ._

…

…

_No, can't think of anything . . .crud . . ._

Minutes turned into hours, and Azusa didn't come out. Mugi came by, and tried talking to Azusa, but to no avail. She left snacks and some water by the closet door, and told Yui to leave the room alone for a while. She said that Azusa needed to cool down, but she didn't say for how long. Mugi left, and Yui decided to sit and play guitar. While sadly plucking at some of the strings, Yui wondered for how long Azusa could keep this up . . .

As if on cue, the door to the bathroom shut. Yui looked up. Azusa had finally opened the door, but only to go to the bathroom. Yui sadly went back to the guitar, looking every now and then to the bathroom door, where Azusa remained silent.

Finally, she opened the door, and silently stood in the doorway, staring at Yui. Yui didn't say anything, patiently waiting for Azusa to speak.

" . . . why?"

"Azu-"

"WHY DID YOU CHEAT ON ME? WITH WHO? WHY? WHERE? WHEN?"

"Wait, Azu-nyan, what are you-"

"You said, in your sleep, that you are cheating, and then you referred it to me. How exactly am I supposed to process what you mean?"

"I, um, cheating? Azu-nyan, when would I ever do that, and why would I leave you?"

"I heard you! What did you mean by it?" Azusa shouted.

"Um, I, uhhh…"mumbled Yui.

"Can't answer? Then you're guilty!" accused Azusa.

"Wait, when did I say this?"

"I found you sleeping on the couch near your guitar, and you were mumbling the word 'cheating' and then you said 'you'. Explain to me how there's another way I could interpret that."

It all came back to Yui in a flash. The dream she was having after she fell asleep on the couch.

"A-Azu-nyan?"

"What!?" said Azusa angrily.

"I dreamt that Gii-tah got turned into a human, and he did bad things to me. He did it right in front of you, and I was begging you to forgive me for cheating on you, because I had slept with him. I guess you heard me wrong when I was sleep-talking, so you weren't supposed to hear just the word 'cheating'. It was just a dream, so nothing happened."

" . . ."

" . . .um, is everything okay, Azu-nyan?"

"That is quite possibly the most ridiculous dream I've heard . . . and I'm quite possibly the dumbest girl on the planet."

"N-N-No, you're not, hey, wait, Azu-nyan?"

The lack of food and water all day, coupled with the heat of the afternoon finally took its toll on the poor girl, and she collapsed on the floor, her face extremely red.

"Azu-nyan!" Yui rushed to her side, lifting her head gently in her hands.

"Hey, stay with me, don't pass out on me like that!"

No response.

"D-Don't do this to me, Azu-nyan!" Yui stammered, reaching for the phone. She dialed a number, which rang twice.

"Hello?"

"Mio, it's Azusa, I don't know what to do!"

"Yui, calm down, I got your message, what happened?"

"I got her to talk, and I think she hasn't eaten or drank anything all day, and it was hot, and then. . .hey, Azu-nyan, why aren't you breathing? AZU-NYAN!"

"Yui! What's going on?"

"CALL THE AMBULANCE, PLEASE!" screamed Yui before the line went dead. In her panic, Yui had pulled the landline phone line out of the wall, causing it to go dead.

"Shit. . ." said Mio, dialing 911.

"What's wrong?" said Ritsu, worried.

"We have a problem . . ."


	17. Things You Said After You Kissed Me

"Azu-nyan. . ."

"She'll be fine, Yui, she's just gonna be resting in the hospital overnight," said Mio.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about," chimed in Ritsu.

"B-B-But, I wanna stay with her, but they won't let me . . ." cried Yui, struggling to get out of Mio and Ritsu's arms. The two had to hold Yui by the arms to keep her from rushing down the street to the hospital where Azusa was resting.

"Damn heat, don't make our cute kouhai pass out like that!" said Ritsu.

"Ritsu, don't curse the heat in the middle of the night."

"Whatever, the point is that next time, you gotta be more careful, Yui."

"Yeah . . ." said Yui, who had quietly given up on struggling and was allowing Ritsu and Mio to drag her.

"Hey, who said that we're carrying you all the way home?" said Mio, dropping Yui's arm. Yui slumped to the ground, dragging Ritsu on top of her.

"What's the big idea, Mio?" shouted Ritsu from the ground.

"Now, now, why don't we let Yui fill you two in on what happened," said Mugi, who was walking beside them.

Yui sighed, and then after pulling herself and Ritsu up, started to tell them the whole story. Yui's weird dreams, her sleep-talking, Azusa overhearing them and taking it the wrong way, Azusa staying the closet . . .

"So she didn't eat, even after I left snacks?"

"They were gone when I checked, but I don't think she actually ate or drank anything."

"The girl's tiny, she's gonna get herself killed if she isn't careful," said Ritsu, kicking a lamp post.

"Ritsu, quit it, it's nobody's fault," said Mio. "It's not your fault either, Yui, you couldn't possibly control what you were saying in your sleep. Plus, it's you, so Azusa should have realized sooner."

Yui remained silent, still lost in thought. She bid them farewell at her door, and went inside to a silent apartment. YuiAzu sat on the couch, waiting patiently for her masters to arrive home. She looked expectantly past Yui, to see if the other one would come in, and then looked away when she realized no one else would come. Yui sighed, and sat at the windowsill. Azusa had told her that long ago, when Yui had left the house, Azusa would constantly sit by the window and stare for hours. She wouldn't sleep or do much else but stare and sigh, and it made Yui fully understand for the first time what Azusa had gone through during the incident. Pressing her forehead to the cool glass, her breath formed a misty cloud, hiding her reflection. She sat there for a long time, not knowing what to do or how to process what just happened.

_Nya~_

Looking up suddenly from the window, Yui turned her head.

"Azu - "

And then she stopped, for the meowing sound was only their cat, and not the person she thought it was.

"Ehehe, silly me, she's not here, she's in the hospit-"

She stopped, arm halfway outstretched towards the cat. Tears had collected on her outstretched arm, soaking into her jacket sleeve. Without realizing, she had already begun to cry.

_She's hurt, and I can't do anything about it, I just can't be by her side right now . . ._

Yui began crying, harder than she had in a long while. Harder than any of those other times she and Azusa cried, because this time, she was crying alone. As she cried, one memory came flooding to the front of her mind, clearer than any other.

The song, the one she was writing, before all this happened today. The one that she was practicing in secret, and was hoping to perform for Azusa today. She crawled over to the forgotten pieces of paper, with childish scrawls and words, with guitar chords and cute pictures.

It was a song dedicated to her, and only to her. It was something that she had been planning to do for the longest time, and for this to occur, just the day before their anniversary of being together for over 4 years, made her cry even harder.

She thought back to when they first started dating, to the time when they had their first kiss.

All those years ago, they promised to be there for each other, to love one another for as long as possible. They had kissed, and then Azusa said for the first time

_I love you._

Yui fell asleep crying, surrounded by the papers containing the song she had written for Azusa, and as she fell into slumber, a small object fell from Yui's pocket and fell open.

A single, golden ring lay there, glimmering in the moonlight. Written on a tag in the box were the words.

_Together, forever._


	18. Things You Said

"Geez, you really didn't have to worry this much," said Azusa, looking around the apartment. Yui had spent most of the day cleaning the apartment, something that doesn't usually happen unless Azusa reminds her a few times.

"It's a welcome-home present for you!" said Yui, helping Azusa through the door. While Azusa had mostly recovered from her trip to the hospital, she was still a bit weak and it would be a few days before she would recover the rest of her strength.

"Still, I'm surprised that you managed to clean up this much by yourself. Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Hehe," chuckled Yui, avoiding eye contact.

"I'll take that as a yes," said Azusa, sitting herself on the couch.

"Stay there, I'm gonna go get something for you," said Yui, heading to the kitchen.

"Not exactly going anywhere, am I? Hey, what time are Mio, Ritsu and Mugi coming?"

"Sometime around 3, this afternoon," called out Yui, out of sight in the kitchen. Azusa looked around once more. The table that was usually littered with candy wrappers and music sheets was clean and spotless. The corner where YuiAzu usually sits and sheds hair was vacuumed and cleaned as if they didn't own a cat at all. Even Azusa's guitar in the corner was sparkling. Noticing that Yui's guitar stand was standing empty next to her own, Azusa wondered where Yui had put Gii-tah.

"Hey, Yui, where's . . . huh?" Azusa stopped, noticing that the sounds of a guitar being tuned could be heard in the kitchen.

Yui came out of the kitchen, strumming on Gii-tah. Her guitar was plugged into a miniature amp strapped to her belt, and she played with the practiced precision from weeks of secret rehearsals while Azusa was asleep or out of the house. She started singing, with lyrics full of the love and emotion that she wanted to convey to Azusa. Azusa's eyes widened, not just because Yui improved her skills, but because of the message that was intertwined with the song. Weeks of sadness when they had broken up. Months of pure love, and the occasional argument, seeped through the words and pierced through Azusa's heart.

Yui finally finished her song, letting the last note ring. Smiling, Yui looked at Azusa, only to find that this time Azusa was the one looking down, avoiding eye contact. Tears were falling from her hidden eyes on to her balled fists on her lap. Panicking, Yui pulled her guitar off.

"A-A-Azu-nyan, I didn't want you to cry, I mean, not yet . . . I mean . . . hey, what's wrong?" stammered Yui, kneeling in front of Azusa.

Azusa looked up, her face streaked with tears and snot. Yui giggled, wiping some of the snot away with a sleeve. Azusa smiled, then kissed Yui full on the lips.

" _You dummy, I love you!"_

"Ew, nooo, you got snot on mee"

"Hey, don't wipe it back on me!"

"It's yours, not mine, Azu-nyan!"

"H-Hey, whoa!"

Yui and Azusa ended up on the floor, with Azusa on top. Tears were still streaming down her face, but she smiled widely despite her tears.

"Welcome home, Azu-nyan," said Yui, wiping away more tears. Azusa smiled once more, and kissed Yui again.

" _Tadaima."_

"Ooh ooh, wait wait, I have something for you!" said Yui suddenly, pushing Azusa off and running to the bedroom. Dazed, Azusa sat on the floor, giggling at Yui's randomness.

"I'm here, I can't, I mean, here, _w-whoa!"_

Yui tripped on the carpet upon re-entering the room, landing face-first in front of Azusa. A small black box fell from her hands, and a golden ring fell from it and rolled in front of Azusa, who picked it up.

"Um, uh . . . I c-can explain?" said Yui from the floor, rolling over on to her back.

" _YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!"_

Azusa leapt on Yui and started kissing her between _Yes_ 's.

" _YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!"_

At this point, the door opened.

"We're here! Break out the tea and cookies, because it's time to par-"

Ritsu stopped, staring at Azusa on top of Yui once more.

"tyGODDAMMIT NOT THIS AGAIN!"

Mio peeked out from behind Ritsu. Though it was hard to tell with all the flailing limbs, she caught a glimpse of something gold on Azusa's finger.

"Well, guess that answers that question. Looks like she said yes, after all."

"Good grief, what's next, are their clothes gonna come off too?"

"Don't jinx it, it'll make Mugi explode."

The wave of realization hit them suddenly. Mugi was standing right behind them, curiously trying to peek around the two of them.

" _NO NO NO!"_ they both shouted, trying to block Mugi's field of view.

"What, what is it?" asked the confused blonde girl.

"Don't look you'll explode."

"For once, I agree with you, Ritsu. Just stay back for now, Mugi."

"I wanna see!" Mugi inadvertently used her strength, easily pushing the two girls into the house.

"Whoah, whoah, Mugi, slow down, don't kill us!" shouted Ritsu.

"Mugi!" said Mio.

Mugi stopped, and Mio and Ritsu rolled onto the ground sighing in relief. Mugi's eyes were immediately drawn to the squirming pair that was the newly engaged couple. Mio and Ritsu looked on in anticipation, ready to catch her if she decided to pass out from excitement or shock.

One minute passed, then two, and finally five minutes.

_Seriously?! Both Yui and Azusa have been going at it for five minutes and Mugi is still alive? Wait, shouldn't we stop those two? Or call out to Mugi?_

Those thoughts went through both of the girls' heads, but neither one of them wanted to be the one to break Mugi's trance, for fear of triggering her nosebleeds.

Finally, Azusa ran out of breath and energy, and rolled off of Yui, breathing heavily before blacking out from lack of air. Yui was the one who ended up passing out first from excitement, and was happily mumbling into dreamland. Mugi . . .

Mio tentatively poked Mugi in the side.

"Still with us?"

No response.

*shakes Mugi's shoulder*

"Oi! Look at me!" said Ritsu loudly. Nothing.

Finally, both of them waved a hand over Mugi's face. No reaction.

Tsumugi Kotobuki had achieved the ultimate fantasy state, having passed out standing up, without a nosebleed, and with both eyes wide open.

"Oh brother, I can't even begin to imagine how she's gonna react during the wedding."

"Think she's gonna explode then?" asked Ritsu.

"Probably," said Mio, looking at the three unconscious girls in the living room. "Probably."


End file.
